losing SPS colonies fast!!!

this is one thing i am closely monitoring right now. as of 3 weeks alk is stable at 9.5 with the increased kalk ratio to a gallon. when i was doing 1tsp/1gallon ration my alk drops and soon as i went to 2tsp/gallon ration my alk went up and stabilized at 9.5 - 9.8 (hanna checker).
what totally slipped my mind was the ph buffer. didn't read the label that it does raise alk so i may have overdosed alk while trying to raise my ph to 8.3. this is before the time i raised my kalk ratio.

so i have to agree with you that it could be an alk swing.
now the question is how long will the effect take to last since the alk has been stable for at least 3 weeks now and still loosing corals.
just checked the tank right now and my marble war coral is slowly fading away so is my green slimmer.

 

alk swings are the worst. when i prepare my kalk i am very careful to add the exact same amount to my water each and every time.

 

i think its the alk swings as well...sps is very picky and will be affected very easily but the piece you posted up seems to have bleached but there is still tissue so it will probably slowly recover

 

Anything buffer adds alk, whether or not it says so. pH is ONLY a function of CO2 and alkalinity. CO2 is controlled by partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), this is basically the level in the air, in your house. Alk is controlled by the alkalinity supplements used and salt.

 

well thanks for all the replies and after a couple of days figuring out what was the problem? i have finally concluded that it was my salinity.
i have always been using my refractometer and always reads 1.025 -1.026 when i change my water and has been consistent with that level. after i have eliminated all causes of my problem the only one left was my salinity.
i have checked my salinity last sunday (25) it read 1.025 on my refractometer. i then borrowed my friends calibrating solution and to my surprise my refractometer was reading higher than normal. so i then asked for his refractometer and to my surprise my tank has been running salinity of 1.013 since who knows when.
i have slowly increased my salinity to 1.026 since monday and the tank seems to be rebounding slowly.
i feel so stupid for leaving my refractometer outside my locked cabinet (for aquarium stuff) and concluded that my daughter may have been playing with it and may be dropping it at times
i feel really sad that lost most of my beautiful colonies but i will be back with a vengeance

Thank you!!!! 3reef family for all the suggestions and ideas on what to check for.
love this forum!!!!

 

What's your potassium level?

 

i don't test for potassium level, sorry.

 

sorry to hear that bro have u done a hard water change mabe that help ?

 

o and dry or wet skim

 

I'm asking cause i had similar situation in my tank and the potassium level was very low that's why few of my colonies start slowly dying from the bottom...
But since you found that your water had low salinity I hope everything gonna get back to normal now.